Tag Archives: resin

Kate Shaw captures the magnificence and mystery in nature in her hypnotizing landscapes created from acrylic paint, glitter, powder, and resin. Each piece exudes the undeniable and powerful force that the rolling hills and mountains hold. Shaw portrays monumental forms of beauty, such as glaciers and cliffs, in an environment swirling with vibrant color. These mesmerizing, whirling hues are created from pouring paint, letting the movement of the color form naturally. Although these paintings show nature and landscapes, they look anything but natural. The colors Shaw has chosen are completely abnormal. Her mountains drip with oranges and pink while her trees rage with rich reds and blues.

There is a strange balance of natural and artificial brilliance captured in Kate Shaw’s work. Her use of different types of materials creates different textures and reflective surfaces that transform the landscapes even further. They are like environments from another planet, just as incredible as they are unfamiliar. Kate Shaw’s landscapes conjure conflicting emotions of growth and manipulation, showing natural beauty with synthetic qualities. Kate Shaw explains her intentions behind this dichotomy.

“My practice aims to convey ideas of nature, alchemy and cycles of creation/destruction. The paintings and video works deal with the tensions and dichotomies in the depiction of the natural world and our relationship to it. I am concurrently exploring the sublime in nature whilst imbuing a sense of toxicity and artificiality in this depiction. My intention is to reflect upon the contradiction between our inherent connection to the natural world and continual distancing from it.”

Her captivating work will be on display at Mirus Gallery in San Francisco in February of 2016.

Canadian artist Drew Mosley paints vivid scenes of anthropomorphic animals on layers and layers of resin. Being an artist and a carpenter, his work contains layers of resin that sit inside custom made wooden frames. Being surrounded by incredible nature in his hometown of Ontario, he draws inspiration from the breathtaking beauty of the wild. The little forest creatures he depicts in his artwork are no doubt animals that he has come across on hikes or in daily life. Drew Mosley’s furry friends look like characters from a storybook, with lots of personality and quirky qualities. Although the critters are wild, they act somewhat like humans by carrying objects such as traveling packs and flags.

Drew Mosley creates in depth atmospheres by painting on individual layers of resin. Each animal almost seems to be popping out of its lush habitat, appearing three-dimensional. Even the feathers of the owl seem to be standing straight up, creating a very real sense of volume and shape. By using this technique, the artist renders extremely realistic textures of fur, feathers, twigs, and leaves. Many of his dioramas include found objects that sit right in the resin, jutting out from the piece. In Mosley’s work titled The Egg Thief, a real quail egg is included in the composition, making the entire piece look all the more realistic. The artist also being a carpenter, he creates sculptures and installations of his wild critters. (via Colossal)

Combining fiberglass statues with polyurethane, artist Nick van Woert‘s sculptures are swallowed up and overcome by texture and color. Artificial Neo-Classical statues are covered in multi-colored resin in a way that looks like they’ve been caught in the middle of a downpour. The visual weight of the translucent material (and emphasis on it) is something that’s at the center of van Woert’s work. In an article about him on Sight Unseen, the following is said about his philosophy of making:

Figuratively speaking, the idea is that the world we’ve built for ourselves is only as good as the materials we’ve used to build it — these days, that means all manner of plastics, strange chemicals, and the hollow plaster that replaces stone in the replica statues van Woert repurposes.

In the same article, van Woert’s practice is said to be driven by the mantra “you are what you eat.” Essentially, it’s the idea that we’d replace marble statues of Ancient Greek and Roman figures with cheap fiberglass will eventually catch up with us. The things we make now might not hold up the test of time as marble sculptures have. In his work, van Woert attempts to reconcile what it means to uphold the past visually, but not in terms of raw materials.

Oh Seung Yul’s noodles may look delicious and edible, but in reality they are complex, hyper-realistic resin sculptures. The Korean noodles dangle 12-feet tall with an actual chopstick fixed to the top. Everything is articulated, from the individual noodles to the carrots and clams. Yul has considered even the gesture of slurping this food. He has colored the noodle mass in such a way that you feel a rush of broth dripping from the chopsticks.

You can marvel at the sculptures for their craft as well as attach a narrative to them. Who is tall enough to hold that chopstick? What kind of person owns that decorative floral platter? The work exaggerated size lends itself well to a whimsical interpretation. It’s still without feeling stiff and impeccably realistic. Yul’s work tricks the viewer, but ultimately reward them with something that’s extremely considered and tediously constructed. (Via My Modern Met)

Riusuke Fukahori, a Japanese artist with an endearing obsession with goldfish, paints three-dimensional renditions of the fish by using a complex process of poured resin on authentic Japanese household containers.

Fukahori strives to paint the goldfish as realistically as possible. His love for the funny looking fish goes beyond words, and the only way to truly pay homage to his ‘friends’ is through creating these unbelievably real-looking sculptures made out of resin. Fukahori keeps dozens of goldfish in tanks and buckets around his studio, he sits and watches the goldfish when he feels uninspired or simply needs company.

His work can be quite deceiving; the goldfish look so real that when people first see his work they find it impossible not to try to reach into the ‘water’ and touch the ‘fish.’

Each of Fukahori’s resin pieces [the resin goldfish] are contained in a variety of everyday Japanese household items. His usage of these items in his work reflects a personal touch, as many of the containers used were bowls and cups that he himself used for years.

The goldfish resin sculptures entail very complicated, repetitive, and labor intensive steps. He first pours a layer of resin, then lets it dry, then paints a small portion of the fish, then lets it dry, then pours another layer of resin—he patiently repeats these steps until the final product is achieved.

“I didn’t invent resin and not the first to use resin. I am not a resin artist. I am a goldfish artist. I think it’s obvious which pieces are Riusuke Fukahori pieces because the imitators use the wrong containers. They will never understand goldfish the way I do. They are only copying the craft, not the soul.”

The Painted Breath, an exhibition of new resin works and paintings by Fukahori, will be on exhibition at the Joshua Liner Gallery in New York on November 21st,2013 till January 18th,2014.

It may surprise you to know that these are not real animals – they’re probably most accurately called paintings. Artist Keng Lye brings these aquatic creatures to life by creating layers of resin and alternating them with acrylic paint. Coupled with his expert play of perspective, the fish (and other creatures) seem ultra realistic. Keng Lye has since added three dimensional portions to his ‘paintings’ as can be seen in these first four images, making them seem even more unbelievably alive and real. [via]